


In This Raft I Laugh

by Snow



Category: Southland
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Community: au_bingo, Gen, Pirates, not historically accurate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-02
Updated: 2010-07-02
Packaged: 2017-10-10 08:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of being detectives and police officers, all these people are pirates.  Well, not Lydia, really.  And not Sal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In This Raft I Laugh

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kristin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristin/gifts).



> Written for au_bingo, prompt Historical: Pirates.
> 
> Betaed by the lovely Yarns.

"Look, kid. It's for your own good that you get off this ship." John Cooper put on his sternest glare. This particular kid was too pretty and rich to last long at sea; John hadn't a clue what the captain had been thinking. "Your daddy's money and influence won't protect you if you die of scurvy or we get captured by a Spanish ship instead of a British one."

Ben Sherman the Second just shrugged at John.

John shrugged. "It's not really any worry to me if you don't make it. Just thought I'd be generous and offer you the chance to get out before it's too late."

Ben looked like nothing more than a hundred other petulant recruits John had seen at that instant. "I can handle it," he insisted.

"Yeah, and it's my job to train you, so you better be sure of that. I'm not having your mistakes come back to bite my ass."

* * *

Chickie grabbed the tankard of beer out of Dewey's hand and took a deep gulp of it herself. She couldn't see how he could drink more than a couple of sips of this swill, let alone the cups he guzzled.

"You can't do that," he protested.

"Damn right I can."

Dewey lunged to grab it back out of her hand and ended up dumping half of it on the ground, and the other half on Chickie. He had his tankard, though, and returned to the keg to fill it. Chickie threw up her hands in disgust.

"If you fall into the ocean again, I'm not rescuing you this time." Chickie doubted Dewey even remembered the last time he'd almost drowned.

* * *

Sammy stared at the paper in front of him and sighed. He dearly loved the woman he was betrothed to, but sometimes he could make neither heads nor tails of her letters.

He wasn't sure now if Tammy wanted him to return and live honorably at her side, tending her father's lands, or if she wanted to run off and join him. Neither scenario would actually work, but Sammy was sure they could find a compromise. Maybe Tammy could be sponsored by some noble who would pay for her paintings.

Sammy pulled out a precious piece of fresh of paper - Tammy had complained the last time he'd penned his response on the back of the letter she'd sent him - and started to compose a reply which would portray to her that he missed her enough to prove he loved her.

* * *

Sal frowned at the pirate ship. No way could that be where Kimmy had gone. She was rebellious at times, but she wasn't suicidal. He'd raised her better than that.

* * *

Lydia sent her report off to the Royal Marines, making sure that none of the pirates saw her doing it. Her job, inasmuch as she was occasionally paid for it but certainly wasn't recognized as an official government agent, was to watch pirate ships to monitor whether they posed a threat to His Majesty's Government.

This one, she suspected, was no more a threat than the average pirate ship, but she had come to think of the people on it less as lawless brigands and more as people. Therefore, as long as they didn't do anything too destructive, Lydia wouldn't be obliged to do what she could to get the ship sunk.


End file.
